[Vision2020] 3rd St. Pedestrian Bridge

Tue May 1 12:58:25 PDT 2007

Excellent point Donovan.

Michael Kyte, Director of the National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology (NIATT) and member of the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service has timed the difference of the two routes to be less than one minute.  By putting in a vehicular bridge, a driver would save less than one minute.  

Third Street is the flattest East/West Route and it makes sense to have a pedestrian bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists.  
  Mitigation is an interesting word. The need for mitigation only exists when a project or situation creates a problem(s) most often that cause harm to an individual, group, environment, or species. Mitigation can be seen as any effort to try and prevent negative effects.  Why go forward with a project or situation that causes harm? It differs from other measures because it specifically deals with risk.  A precursor activity to the mitigation is the identification of risks.  

What are the risks involved for pedestrians, bicyclists, a neighborhood, and vehicles with a vehicular bridge vs. a pedestrian bridge? (both with and without both of these)

The following is some background on the pedestrian bridge idea and it's origins. (for those that aren't familiar with it or who believe it was an effort to circumvent the vehicle bridge).   The folks from Moscow's Paradise Path (part of Moscow's Parks & Rec) brought some consultant/ organizers from City Repair of Portland to a workshop on Sept 10, 2005. After a presentation and brainstorming session, attendees at the workshop identified places in Moscow that might be candidates for City Repair's ideas of people reclaiming their urban spaces to create community-oriented places. These places were:

   Deadman's Hill (Adams, from B      to C streets)
   F Street Hill
   West entrance to Moscow
   Hwy 95 & Hwy 8      Intersection
   Harrison St right of way south of      Hwy 8 (connection to Berman       Creekside Park) 
   3rd St Crossing of Paradise      Creek
   Travois Way Linear Park
   D Street and Mt View Intersection
   F Street and Mt View Intersection
   Taylor and Lauder Intersection
   A Street and Main Street Triangle
  From these, three were picked by the group (West Entrance to Moscow, Intersection Of Hwys95and8, 3rd St Crossing) for further brainstorming.
For more information about City Repair please visit their website http://www.cityrepair.org

Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote: The costs outweigh the gains of placing a vehicle bridge across the 3rd Street and Mountain View intersection. 

  Think, what do you gain. You gain an access point, but to what and at what costs to others.

  Taking 3rd Street instead of D Street or 6th Street takes longer to get to town. The width of the road, the right of way, positioning of stop signs, pedestrian traffic, and other vehicle traffic makes using 3rd Street a slower alternative. I suggest you drive this route:

  Joesph St. to Mountain View to 3rd Street. Time it. Then drive the distance from the end of 3rd Street to downtown. Time that and add the times together.

  Next, drive from Joesph Street to 6th Street, then make a right on Hayes, the a left on 3rd and follow it all the way downtown. You will find it took you longer to drive the Mountain View Route.

  The same is true with coming from the northeast side of town off Dst Street. It is faster to take Dst and go left on 95 than it is to take Mountain View and try to go right down 3rd Street. 

  There are no houses on the other side of Mountain View where it would be a quicker access point to use 3rd than either 6th or D streets. 

  The city would be creating another access point, but it would not be a faster or safer route. So it seems like a weak argument when you consider it would disrupt parking and reduce safety in the neighborhood. Not to mention the environmental impact problems to the creek and lightening of the taxpayers wallet. 

  I would rather see a bridge across 3rd Street/Highway for safe passage of students over the traffic. The City is working on the wrong end of the street.

  Best,

  Donovan

Dan Carscallen <areaman at moscow.com> wrote:
  Cynthia asks:
"Someone please explain to me WHY a pedestrian bridge is being built at
3rd St. Please try to convince me that it's not to, once and for 
all, prevent an auto bridge from going there. What powerful people in
Moscow DON'T want that?"

>From what I heard at the Administrative Committee meeting last Monday,
if the placement of a pedestrian bridge is to either the north or the
south, it would not preclude the future addition of a vehicular bridge
in the future (a vehicular bridge is a part of the Comprehensive Plan).

One must realize there is some pretty vocal opposition to a vehicular
bridge there, which got it put on the back burner about a year and a
half ago. If a person is in favor  of a vehicular bridge there (which I
think would work with some traffic mitigation), that person should make
their opinion known to the powers-that-be.

DC

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